Gloucestershire skipper Michael Klinger set for Indian Premier League auction

GLOUCESTERSHIRE skipper Michael Klinger could miss the start of the 2014 county cricket season if he is snapped up in the Indian Premier League auction later this week.

The 33-year-old’s fantastic white ball form with Gloucestershire and the Adelaide Strikers in the Australian Big Bash has earned him a spot in the player pool for Twenty20 cricket’s most prestigious league.

Klinger played for the Kochi Tuskers Kerala during the 2011 tournament but has not been involved since.

But after a superb season with Gloucestershire and more success in the Big Bash in Australia, the opening batsman will take his place among 514 players in the auction that will take place in Bengalaru on Wednesday and Thursday this week.

Eight teams make up the IPL rosta with each team drafting in a squad of 27 for the two-month long tournament.

Competition rules prevent any one of the franchises from drafting more than nine non-Indians into their squads, so Klinger is playing for one of 72 available spots.

He has a reserve price in the auction of 10million Indian Rupees – a figure that translates to almost £100,000.

If Klinger is snapped up by one of the eight IPL franchises it could result in him missing the first nine games of Gloucestershire’s season.

The IPL starts on April 3 and concludes with the final in Kolkatta on May 26.

Klinger starred for Gloucestershire in all three forms of the game last summer, topping the batting averages in the LV=County Championship, 40 over and Twenty20 competitions.

He scored 366 Twenty20 Cup runs at an average of 52.29, scoring two fifties and smacking a superb 61-ball century in the 48-run victory over Worcestershire at Bristol.

He carried on that form Down Under, smashing 223 runs in seven games for the Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash at an average of 44.60.

The highlight of his Twenty20 season in Australia was an unbeaten match-winning 86 in the Strikers’ six-wicket win against eventual Big Bash champions the Perth Scorchers on New Years Eve.

The IPL Auction starts on Wednesday with the 16 marquee players going under the hammer.

The marquee list of the top talents of the world game has been split into two lists of eight depending on value with the first list including sacked England star Kevin Pietersen, who has a base price of 20million rupees (£200,000).

The marquee list also includes former India star Virender Sehwag, former South Africa star Jacques Kallis, Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene and Australia duo Mitchell Johnson and David Warner.